■Athletics Japan Championships Day 1 Women’s 1500m Preliminary (27th, Denka Big Swan Stadium, Niigata City)

In the women’s 1,500m preliminaries, Nozomi Tanaka (24, New Balance), who holds the Japanese record in this event, recorded a time of 4 minutes 8.16 seconds, placing first overall in the preliminaries (excluding open participants), and has qualified for tomorrow’s final.

Tanaka, who had already been selected as an Olympic representative in the 5000m, broke the participation standard (4 minutes 2.50 seconds) and won the 1500m final on the second day, securing a spot on the team for a second event at the Paris Olympics.

Tanaka, who appeared in the second qualifying group, started the race in second place from the back. He gradually improved his position, and with two laps remaining, he took the lead and began to pull away from the rest. With one lap remaining, he picked up the pace even more and finished in first place.

In Group 1, Tokyo Olympic representative Ran Urabe (29, Sekisui Chemical), Budapest World Athletics Championship representative Yume Goto (24, Uniqlo), and U-20 Asian Championship gold medalist Eri Drury (16, Tsuyama High School) advanced to the finals.

Tanaka is entered in three events at this tournament: the 800m, 1500m, and 5000m. After the race, he reflected, “I didn’t think too much about the fact that I had three events to compete in, and I went into the race with a lot of tension, as if today was the final. I ran without being too tense, and my time was better than I expected, so I think I can see tomorrow now.”

Depending on the results, there could be a maximum of five races, and he renewed his resolve, saying, “It’s a given that there is a tomorrow, and I don’t take it for granted that I will qualify (for the Olympics).On the contrary, I need to race aggressively, even if it means losing out on qualification, and that will lead to (the Olympics) in August.”

Most recently, he finished in 4 minutes 7.39 seconds (fourth place, the top time for Japan) at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix Athletics (1500m) held on May 19. On May 26, he broke the participation standard in the 5000m at the Diamond League held in Eugene, USA, and was selected as a representative for the Paris Olympics.